By Melissa Hart

Just as each snowflake that falls to the ground is unique and intricate with the same molecular make up, there are no two farms alike, all while producing the same food and fiber to keep our country rolling.

Recently we traveled to New York state to visit some dairy farms and while they were all producing one of nature’s most perfect foods, they were all doing it differently.

Our first stop was Lantland Farms in Horseheads. The three-story, gingerbread-laden farmhouse stood as a beacon for the farmstead that was more than 100 years old. Three generations greeted us as we walked into the farm office that smelled of freshly brewed coffee that just minutes later, I was enjoying as we walked through the tie-stall barn. Registered Holsteins filled the 160-stall barn with boxstalls at the end where high scoring older cows enjoyed the earned luxury. We went through the entire herd that every cowman could appreciate for the deep cow families and purpose-driven genetics. They had a 30-year-old automatic feeding system that I had never seen before in my life. Their brand-new calf barn is the envy of every calf feeder, but what was I most impressed with? The intricate patterned gutter cleaner that quietly hummed along while we visited and never missed a beat. I definitely had gutter cleaner envy.

We stopped in at Tigerlily Holsteins in Oxford, where we enjoyed a tour of one of the most well-bred herds of Red & Whites. While they had a parlor with freestalls and milked 400 cows, they also utilized their old tie-stall barn that was nearly as long as the barn at Lantland. The old barn was in perfect shape and housed heifers and fresh cows. They also had a beautiful calf barn and a gutter cleaner that worked flawlessly. Yes…more gutter cleaner envy.

One of our last stops was where the 2021 AFBF Farm Dog of the Year, Bindie, called home – Silver Spoon Dairy. The Galley family welcomed us into the tie-stall barn that was just one car’s width off the busy blacktop road. This historical place had a million-dollar view of a valley that went for miles. The barn was perched on the side of a steep hill and the cows inside were beautiful. Young cows with fantastic udders were the product of the astute Virginia Tech graduate, Sonja Galley, who paid close attention to her dairy judging coach and aced her genetics class. The udders were amazing, the facilities focused on cow comfort and again, a gutter cleaner that worked like a charm. I can’t even describe how it took the manure out below the barn and into a pit. It was a crazy barn-cleaning system you’d have to see to believe.

After each stop, I marveled at the differences in each farm. What worked for one, didn’t work for the other and that was okay. They made their systems work on the land they acquired. Their barns were creations of the minds of unique designers. Different men with different plans and the result was generational success.